RE: What's a good versioning system for Office documents?

Subject: RE: What's a good versioning system for Office documents?
From: "Andrew Warren" <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:56:05 -0700

Lou Quillio wrote:

> Have you considered whether locking is so important? Let's say
> that James and Kirk check-out `Manual.doc` for editing at more or
> less the same time. James, who finishes first, commits his back
> as part of changeset 51. A little later, Kirk commits his back
> in changeset 52. It obviously doesn't contain James's changes.
>
> Tiberius notices that this has happened -- there are only five
> people in the group -- and it's trivial for him to check-out both
> versions 51 and 52, merge them *in MS Word* (applying some
> necessary judgment), and commit back version 53.
>
> Let's think about Tiberius.

Let's pray for the poor bastard, and let's be thankful we don't
have to work where he does.

After about the second time that he has to merge documents in MS
Word (or after the first time he mistakenly DOESN'T merge, or at
the moment he realizes that someone else could check-out WHILE
he's merging), Tiberius is going to threaten to quit unless the
group implements strong file locking.

> Seems as though it's hoped that file-locking can replace all need
> for communication. But can it? Is that even wise?

The question isn't whether file locking can replace all need for
communication, but whether communication can replace all need
for file locking. I think the answer's "no"... And actually, I
think your scenario presents a good argument FOR locking: In a
small group, it should be easy to arrange things so that multiple
writers don't need simultaneous access to the same file.

-Andrew

=== Andrew Warren - awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com
=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today!. http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Doc-To-Help includes a one-click RoboHelp project converter. It's that easy. Watch the demo at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


Follow-Ups:

Previous by Author: RE: visio
Next by Author: Wikipedia (was: "RE: the Netherlands vs. The Netherlands (Lou Quillio)")
Previous by Thread: Re: What's a good versioning system for Office documents?
Next by Thread: Re: What's a good versioning system for Office documents?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads